Committee receives direction for city manager contract negotiations

Saturday

HILLSDALE — The council as a whole discussed upcoming contract negotiations with City Manager David Mackie on Monday night, as Mackie’s current contract is set to expire by July 2018.

Councilman Tim Dixon, who chairs the operations and governance committee, first floated the idea for this discussion at the Sept. 5 city council meeting, stating that input was needed to begin negotiations in case negotiations fall through and the city needs to search for a new city manager.

The discussion was tabled until Monday’s meeting as scores of residents turned out for the Sept. 5 meeting for a public hearing on medical marijuana businesses and the council wanted to give everyone a chance to speak at that time.

Lonnie King, a resident of the city, spoke highly of Mackie’s work ethic during public comment.

“I think this town is finally getting into position with the (administration) and people in place,” King said. “I think Mr. Mackie is well educated and well tempered. I’m in favor of keeping Mr. Mackie, no matter what the price may be.”

Councilman Bruce Sharp built upon King’s comments during a short discussion on the topic, which mainly focused on an evaluation form used to rate Mackie’s work performance.

“You can talk to the gentlemen, even when he doesn’t want to be bothered,” Sharp said. “He’s brought Hillsdale so far, in such a short amount of time.”

Turning to the evaluation form, Sharp said the current evaluation form was better than what has been used in the past with the three prior city managers he has worked with.

“The evaluation form was very helpful, it was something to work with,” Sharp said.

Councilman Adam Stockford spoke against the current form, citing that many leading industries have veered away from a numerical system for rating performance.

“I don’t like using a number system for evaluation, because if someone’s doing a great job, you want to give them the top number,” Stockford said.

He then offered to bring in a number of evaluation forms used elsewhere to build upon and restructure the form used for the city manager as Stockford sits in a unique position working in business management and employment solutions.

Councilman Bill Zeiser added that the evaluation forms, in his opinion, were more useful because of “what they say about the persons highest qualities.”

“It’s in our best interest to retain him,” Zeiser added.

Over the next few months, the O&G committee will begin contract negotiations with Mackie aimed at establishing an agreeable three-year contract.

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